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Breast cancer is a disease that affects many people. Whether it is someone who is suffering from it, or those with family members who are going through treatment, it affects a large portion of the population. It can be treatable, depending on when it is found, but a lot of the times we don’t know the signs.

Two mothers who were each diagnosed with breast cancer have spoken out about what they wished they had noticed. It’s not always just lumps, there is more to watch out for.

Emily Lunn was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2016 after discovering a lump, but she hadn’t connected it to the symptoms she had experienced months before. She first noticed a milky discharge coming from her nipple four months before the lump appeared.

“I had no idea what it was, I just knew it was clearly not normal,” Lunn said. “My GP checked it out but told me it was nothing – it disappeared after a week.”

Emily Lunn

Months later when she found the lump, she realized that it was all connected. “I waited because I really thought it would be nothing. Now I wish I pursued my worries [earlier]… being told I have stage three breast cancer was like being hit by a train. I was reeling for weeks before it finally sank in.”

She has gone through treatment but it was a rough process for this mother of two. “Being breast aware is so important to me now. I’m constantly checking myself and looking for changes, anything unusual at all as I know so many things can mean breast cancer.”

Emily Lunn

Luckily she has used her experience to help inform others, but that’s not the only other secret symptom that breast cancer has been hiding behind…

Earlier this summer, we shared the surprising story of Julia Monaco with you. The Australian tourist found herself nearby during three terrorist attacks in less than three months while touring Europe.

Monaco survived the attacks in Barcelona, Paris and London.Yahoo AU

While Monaco was unscathed but obviously shaken by her experiences, it seems there was someone with even worse luck than her. Between 2013 and 2016, Mason Wells was either near or directly involved in three terrorist attacks. The most recent one, last year’s airport bombing in Brussels, almost took the young man’s life.

Wells’ first brush with danger came at age 16, when he traveled from Utah to Boston with his family to watch his mother compete in the Boston Marathon. Of course, this was the 2013 race which was targeted by terrorists. Luckily, Wells’ mother finished the race before the bomb exploded near the finish line.

But Wells, a devout Mormon, says the experience made him ask big questions about God, and why he would allow such bad things to happen.

Emergency workers treat victims of the Bataclan theater shooting.

Those questions were on his mind again when he traveled to France as a missionary. Wells was in the country during the 2015 terror attack that killed more than 130 people in Paris. While he was far away from the action during this second attack, Wells wasn’t so lucky the next time.

I, like many people, am terrified of heights. That’s why, while reading about the ordeal that Cliff Judkins went through as a U.S. Air Force pilot on a routine trans-pacific flight makes me so wildly uncomfortable.

The Timetablist

Judkins was flying his F-8 Crusader, 20,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. He had just hooked his plane up to C-130 Tanker in order to do a mid-air refuel.

uss-la-ca135.org

During the initial stages of refueling, everything remained normal and all of his gauges told him that this would be a quick and painless procedure. Judkins noticed that his throttle lever was sticking slightly, which was slightly unusual, and as he tried to adjust for the issue there was a bang followed by a mid-air explosion. This started a chain reaction of events that would seem far-fetched in a book or on television.

wikiwand.com

Judkins had “flamed out” meaning his plane suffered a catastrophic malfunction followed by a mid-air fire/explosion. His training immediately kicked in and he started going through the procedures for such a situation. His radio was out so he couldn’t inform anyone of what was going on, and that was a serious problem, because when he attempted to release the canopy hatch to eject, nothing happened.

The world is a strange place. It can be warm and beautiful, full with life, but it can also be cold and ruthless. For Melissa Castruita, here’s hoping that she finds the rest of her life to be warm and beautiful. She can now be considered one of the world’s luckiest (or unluckiest people, depending on how you look at it) as she has survived not one, but two mass shootings.

Metro Newspaper UK

Her fiance remembers the day, December 2, 2015, when he got a text from his fiance while she was working at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, “active shooter.”

CBS Los Angeles

That day changed Castruita’s life forever. Crowds began to make her uneasy, and she often found herself jumping to thoughts of “does that person with their hand in their pocket have a gun?” Time does seem to heal most wounds, because less than two years later she was in the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival celebrating her 34th birthday. Fate transpired against her, and the most terrible re-run imaginable began to take place in front of her as bullets started to fly during Jason Aldean’s set.

With modern medicine, there are very few diseases that still strike fear into our hearts the way rabies does.

It’s not the world’s deadliest disease, or even very common, but for decades it was common knowledge that if you had rabies, your days were numbered. Rabies is a virus that attacks your brain, stopping your body from swallowing, or your mind from regulating your heartbeat and breathing.

Before symptoms set in (which usually takes less than a week) you can take five rabies vaccines which increase your chance of surviving the disease. They contain dead samples of the rabies virus, which helps your body fight the disease by building antibodies.

But once a patient develops the early symptoms, there’s not much a doctor can do. Even now, researchers haven’t found the “magic bullet” to effectively treat rabies. In some countries, patients suffering from the virus are simply comforted until they pass away, or even sent home to die.

So you can appreciate how scared 15-year-old Jenna Giese was when she realized she had caught the virus. Incredibly, Jenna survived to become the first person who outlived the rabies virus. But it wasn’t easy…

A young girl from Utah is one of the youngest people in the world to ever be diagnosed with breast cancer and she is now inspiring people with her story.

People

When Chrissy Turner was only 8-years-old she told her parents about a lump she had found under her right nipple that was painful to touch.

“It was about the middle of October she came to us with a lump on her chest and was scared,” her father Troy told ABC4 Utah News.

By November of 2015, the doctors diagnosed the young girl with secretory breast carcinoma, a rare type of cancer that only affects one in a million.

Her father, Troy Turner, a survivor of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, didn’t know how to tell his daughter.

“How do you tell your kid that she has cancer?” he asked.

Troy continues to battle his cancer which created a double nightmare for the family.

“All the while, medical bills are continuing to pile up, forcing them to file bankruptcy in July 2013, but even after bankruptcy, bills continue to flow,” Annette said.

Daily Mail

Almost 2 years after a mastectomy, Chrissy who is now 10-years-old, is doing well.

“Even at first, after her initial shock, Chrissy showed an overwhelmingly positive attitude and strength to overcome her situation and return to enjoying life,” her father said. “She truly has a spirit beyond her age, and her positive attitude and strength are radiated to those around her. She inspires me every day.”

People

Since the removal of her right breast, Chrissy has been seen for a breast scan every three months and will likely undergo reconstructive surgery when she’s 15 or 16-years-old.

“About a month ago, we had our first meeting with a plastic surgeon, just so she’ll know what her options are,” says her mother Annette Turner. “She’s barely starting to develop on her left side, so we have some time.They just want her to be prepared for it.”

Thanks to this surgery Chrissy was able to avoid radiation therapy, which can cause a number of side effects.

When the young girl came out of surgery she was given a bear named Andy, who was dressed up in doctor’s scrubs with a bandage on its chest.